Continuous kiln or furnace for burning bricks, &amp;c.



N0. 636,l93. Patented Oct. 3|, I899; E. C. BRIDE.

CONTINUOUS KILN'OB FURNACE FOR BURNING BRICKS, 8w.

(Application flied June 21, 1899.)

(No Model.)

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N0. 636,I93.- Patented Oct. 3|, I899.

E. G.-BR,|CE. CONTINUOUS KILN 0B FURNACE FOR BURNING BRICK-S, 81.0.

' (Applipation filed June 21, 1599. (No Iodel.) Y 5 Sheets-Sheet 2,

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Patented Oct. 3|, I899.

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E. c. BRIDE. CONTINUOUS KILN 0R FURNACE FOB BURNING BRICKS, 8w.

(Application filed June 21, 1899.)

(N0 Model.)

N0. 636,|93. Patented Oct. 3|, l899.

E. names. CONTINUOUS KILN 0B FURNACE FOR BURNING BRICKS, 6w.

(Application filed June 21, 1899.) (No Model.)

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' Patented- Oct. 9|, I899.

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E. c. BRIDE.

(Application filed. June 21, 1899.)

CONTINUOUS KILN 0B FURNACEFOR BURNING BUICK S 81.9.

(No Model.)

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IT-En STATES PATENT FFICE.

EDWARD O. BRIOE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CONTINUOUS KILN OR FURNACE FOR BURNING BRICKS, 86C.

SPECIFICATION forming partof Letters Patent No. 636,193, dated October 31, 1899. Application filed June 21, 1899. Serial No. 721,366. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern-r Be it known that I, EDWARD O. BRICE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illi- 5 nois, have invented certain new and useful tion, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention is an improvement in that class of continuous kilns or furnaces in which 1 5 a series of cars or trucks loaded with bricks or other articles to be burned are passed through a tunnel having fire-boxes arranged along the sides and corn municatin g with the space or heat-chamber above said trucks, so that the products of combustion may be discharged thereinto and upon the bricks. Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to produce furnaces or kilns of this class. The most prominent cause of failure was the defective supply of oxygen, and consequently insufficient combustion along the lower side angles of the'heat-chamber, and another cause was the overheating of the wheels and'under portions of the trucks by reason of the defective o supply of cool atmospheric air thereto while the trucks werein the area of greatest heat in their passage through the tunnel. I have completely overcome these defects by the construction and arrangement of parts hereinaf- 3 5 ter described and claimed.

In the annexed drawings, Figure l represents a side view of a furnace constructed ac-- cording to the present invention. Fig. 2 represents a'vertical longitudinal section of such 0 furnace, taken through the fire-boxes and smoke-stacks. Fig. 3 represents a horizontal longitudinal section of such furnace. Fig. 4 represents a vertical transverse section through the furnace. Fig. 5 represents an end Fig. 6 represents a vertical longitudinal section taken through the middle of such furnace. Fig. 7 represents in detail one-half of one of the doors or gates. Fig. 8 represents a sectional view of the same. Fig. 9 represents an enlarged detail of the connection between the cars and the tunnel.

Figs. 10 and 11 represent longitudinal and transverse views of the grate-bars.

The furnace or kiln A has a longitudinal passage or tunnel a. In Figs. 3 and 6, A indicates the entrance end, A the middle section or body, and A the exit end, of the kiln. The tunnel is provided at each end with swinging doors B, which do not extend below the truckplatforms, so that space is provided for admission of air beneath the trucks. The side walls of the tunnel are vertical .and the top (I is arched or curved, as shown.

Fire-boxes D, Fig. 4, are arranged oppositely at intervals along the sides of the tun nel a and communicate with the latter at the top by means of passages 01', which extend through the upper ends of the side walls. These fireboxes have the usual openings (Z for supplying fuel, also ash-pits d and grate-bars (1*. The latter may be constructed with grooves 61 as 'shown in Figs. 10 and 11, for the purpose of avoiding the excessive accumulation of clinkers. Air is supplied to the fire-boxes D in the usual way and also'by pipes 01 Fig. 3, which lead from a common entrance (1 to the several ash-pits d By means of a valve located at d the supply of air through the ducts (1 may be regulated at will.

Cars or trucks F run on two parallel tracks laid on the bottom or floor of the tunnel, and

their platforms are provided with pendent side flanges f, (see Figs. 4 and 9,) which run in troughs e filled with sand,whereby a practicallyair-tight seal is produced and communication between the heating-space above the trucks and that below them prevented. It will be noted that there are two outside troughs E and a central or intermediate one G, the latter being arranged upon a low brick partition extending through the tunnel a, between and equidistantly from the parallel tracks. The cars or trucks have metal platforms covered to a suitable depth with the proof material whose surface is flush with ledges formed along the sides of the tunnel 0L, as shown in Fig. 4.

As shown in Fig. 3, there are three smokestacks or chimneys O O O on each side of the kiln, one being arranged near each end and the other at the middle point of the kiln.

I come now to describe the feature of my furnace or kiln upon which its superior eflicieney mainly dependsnamely, the arrangement with and functional relation to the firebox passages d of the side fines for the products of combustion and the ducts or passages by which air is supplied to such fines. For convenience of designation Iwill term thelatter heat-fines.

As shown bestin Figs. and I, a heat-fine C extends nearly the whole length of each side wall of the tunnel a, the same being arranged in the base of said wall and preferably in line with the tops of cars or trucks. These fines C communicate with the chimneys, as shown, and their cubical capacity is enlarged at points near the chimneys, as shown by dotted lines, Fig. 6. Said fines O communicate with the tunnel by n n merous lateral passages or short fines 0 Figs. 3, 4t, and 6.

\Vhile in the broadest aspect of my invention I do not wish to restrict myself to the means for admission of atmospheric air along the side angles of the heating-chamber, the means I have found most effective and desirable for several reasons is the small passages c (see Figs. 3 and 4,) which extend laterally into the side walls of the tunnel at a point below the truck-platforms and then upward to the fines O These passages are shown joined by passages c, which extend in the side walls parallel to the tunnel; but they are not at all necessary to the successful operation of the furnace. The airentering beneath the end doors B traverses the tunnel beneath the trucks, thus cooling the latter before passing up to the point of combustion of its oxygen.

As shown by arrows, Fig. 4, the products of combustion passing up from fire-boxes D, through their threats (1, tend to converge at the center of the arch d and spread or diverge thence upon the bricks or other material set on the cars F, and then pass down through and around the bricks toward the side fines O At this point the solid and gaseous products of combustion are met by a supply of oxygen furnished by infiowing atmospheric air, which enters the side fines O Careful experiment with and observation of the operation of a full-sized kiln constructed according to this plan has established the fact that not only does this conjunction of oxygen and products of combustion occur in the fines (3 and their lateral passages 0 but even outside the latter and within the heat-chamber containing the bricks. In other words, the air admitted to the side fines C promotes secondary combustion all along said fines and in their lateral passages, as well as along the adjacent side angles of the heat-chamber. The lateral passage of the air from fines O into the heatchamber seems to be effected intermittently, and hence the action of the kiln, or, rather, the blast, as indicated by the appearance of flame at the top of the chimneys, is pulsatory. The result is most satisfactory and, in fact, remarkable in that the combustion produced'appears praeticallyperfeet, while the bricks are thoroughly, evenly, and quickly burned to the desired degree. These results indicate a corresponding economy in fuel.

Experiments made on a large scale have demonstrated that without the downdraft from the fire-box throats d and meeting the same with a due supply of oxygen in the side angles of the heating-chamber, substantially in the manner described, such results cannot be obtained.

Another important feature remains to be stated-uan1ely, that the air which thus supplies oxygen at a critical juncture in the process of combustion subserves another function on its way to the fiues C in that it passes in contact with the wheels and under portions of the truck-frames, and thus effectively cools the same and becomes itself more or less heated, in which condition it enters the fines O Thus two important results are attainedto wit, cooling the trucks and promoting combustion by preliminary heating of the oxygen supplied. If the latter were delivered at any other point than where it may combine with the products of combustion, as before stated, combustion would be promoted ineifectively or but slightly. The air becoming gradually heated, and thus rarefied, as it passes along the tunnel from each end, the tendency of the same to escape at once into such of the side passages c as are nearest the ends of the tunnel is counteracted sufliciently to insure a due supply at the center of the kiln, where chimneys are located and the heat greatest.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. Theimproved furnace orkiln of the character described, comprising a tunnel, fireboXes arranged on the sides thereof, and having throats or exit-passages leading upward toward thearch of the tunnel, longitudinal heat-fines arranged in the side walls interven ing the fire-boxes and tunnel, lateral passages leading from said fines into the tunnel, and other passages for delivering air to support combustion along the side angles of the tunnel adjacent to the car-platforms, substantially as specified.

2. The improved furnace or kiln of the character described, comprising a tunnel, fireboxes arranged on the sides thereof, and having throats or exit-passages leading upward toward the arch of the tunnel, longitudinal heat-fines arranged in the side walls intervenin gthe fire-boxes and tunnel, lateral passages leading from said fines into the tunnel, and a series of air-passages leading laterally and upward from the tunnel-space beneath the trucks, to conjunction with the heat-fines and heat-chamber above the trucks, substantially as specified.

3. In a furnace or kiln of the character described, the combination with the tunnel having doors which allow free admission of air at each end of the tunnel, fire-boxes located on the sides of the tunnel, and heat-fines arranged in the side Walls and communicating with the heating chamber or space above the trucks, of air-passages leading directly laterally from the space below the trucks into the said heatflues, substantially as shown and described.

4. A furnace A, having the fire-boxes D, the tunnel, a, the former communicating with the latter; the smoke-stacks the heat-flues O communicating with the smoke-stacks; the passages 0 connecting the tunnel and flues; passages 6 e connecting the fines with the tunnel a, as set forth.

5. The improved furnace or kiln comprising a tunnel adapted for passage of cars loaded with articles to be burned, fire-boxes arranged along the side thereof, side walls intervening them and the tunnel, save at the top,where transverse passages extend through the walls from the several fire-boxes, flues or spaces arranged in the walls on their inner sides and at their bases approximately at the floor-level of the cars, and passages admitting atmospheric air to said spaces, whereby the products of combustion converging from the fire-boxes descend through the articles on the cars, and, diverging through the lower side angles of the tunnel combustion-space, meet 0 EDWARD C. BRIOE.

- Witnesses:

EMMA M. GILLETT, FRANCK L. OURAND. 

